Pathophysiology

Do you know the definition of pathophys? If yes, you should be able to answer your own question.

Pathophysiology is the basis of your entire nursing school education. If you don't know your pathophysiology, there is no way you would ever function in nursing school or in a hospital.

I'm a BSN student taking pathophysiology. My question is , how will pathophysiology help me in the near future? Sorry if the question sounds stupid.

Thanks

You should also consider yourself lucky that your BSN program offers it.

Ours does not

Best,

Diane

You should also consider yourself lucky that your BSN program offers it.

Ours does not

Best,

Diane

Diane,

Can you take it at a local community college? I would definitely recommend it if you can.

Pathophysiology helps you to understand the disease process and progression. Understanding the disease process helps you to understand and apply appropriate interventions. Besides that, it is incredibly interesting.

Pathophys allows you to understand why we nurses do what we do...

A better understanding of it will make you a better nurse-- you will be able to anticipate effects on your patients and how to prevent bad effects from happening.

Also, if you plan on going to grad school you will see pathophysiology again...

You should also consider yourself lucky that your BSN program offers it.

Ours does not

Best,

Diane

Really? Does it not get discussed in conjunction with Anat and Phys units then?

In my opinion, it depends on where you're at in your nursing career. When you took A & P, you learned about the "what it is" and "what it does." Now, you're taking that to the next level and if you're a new nurse then you'll be adding to your knowlege base and skills and learn how to think critically. You're given the materials to think this way. You'll be glad your school offered this course. Of course, with nursing, you learn something new every hour you work and come from everyone you work with.

I'm starting in an accelerated BSN program in the fall and we were required to take Pathophys. as a prerequisite for admission.

It's an amazing course, and it covers a whole WORLD that A and P barely touches on.

Take it, embrace it, and excel. You'll be happy you did (and so will your future patients!)

I am only hoping, that along with all the other info crammed into NS courses, pathophysiology will be intertwined. B/C we don't have it as a seperate course on its own in my program either. There was some discussed as we moved systemicly through A&P, and some coverage in micro via a few case studies and some common diseases. Sheesh, this only scares me for either how prepared I won't feel I am, or for how much more info we will have crammed into our brains over a short amt of time:sstrs:

To elaborate on what someone else posted, pathophys is the knowlede of the disease process. You learn what happens when the body is ill.

As a nurse it is important for several reasons:

Firstly, you cannot be an effective nurse if you do not have an understanding of the disease the pt has.

We need to be aware of the signs that the pt is improving, and more importantly, the signs the pt is getting worse, and what can happen. We are the eyes and ears of the pt, and it is our responsibility to know if our patients are in trouble and notify the MD (we spend WAY more time with the pt than they do and the docs rely on us to be alert to a pt who is geting ready to code or stroking out (for example).

Also, nurses are responsible to educate the patient and the families on the disease, the symptoms, the meds they are on, and any necessary lifestyle changes needed, etc. A nurse cannot do this if they do not have a knowledge of the disease.

It is important in your care of the patient, to be able to assess if they are stable, have special needs, and to think critically about the proper treatment. An example would be a diabetic patient who is not eating, or has a history of hypoglycemic episodes after insulin is given...in which case we would notify the doc that they may want to change the med regimen to avoid this problem in the future (docs do not always read every single nursing note so we need to alert them to potential issues).

Finally, it is necessary to know the disease process, so you can question orders from docs that may not make sense or could harm the patient (you would be surprised at how often this happens, not that the docs are incompetent, they just don't always see the whole picture, or could be thinking about another pt, etc.), esp if there is more than one doc writing orders for the pt.

Hope this gives you a better understanding on why pathophys is so very essential!

One more note...you learn the basics in school...once you are in the field you find that there is way more to learn about each disease, and that not every case is "textbook"...I have been very lucky to work in a hospital with nurses and doctors who are willing and eager to teach and don't mind when I ask lots of questions to enhance my knowledge.

Amy